Erlendur (who was first introduced to us in TAINTED BLOOD (aka JAR
CITY)) is called to the investigation of a skeleton, found in a shallow
grave on an area that used to be open hills outside Reykjavik. When the
skeleton was buried this was sparsely populated with a few summer
chalets. Just to complicate matters the skeleton could also be from the
time when there was a British and then American Army base in the area.
It could be an Icelander who once got lost in the snow.

The investigation is complicated by the age of the burial; the slow and
painstaking excavation of it by archaeologists; and by the location and
the lack of information about any of the possible residents of that
area. As Erlendur and his team slowly work through all the
possibilities, the hills reveal they have had more than their fair share
of family tragedy, brutality and heartache.

Erlendur is also confronted by the mess of his own family when his
estranged daughter contacts him briefly, desperate for urgent help. As
the investigation continues and Erlendur's family crisis continues there
is a gradual revealing of many of the things that have happened in his
own past - making him the person that he is today. Just in the same way
as many of the events in the families who are eventually connected to
the nearby summer chalet slowly reveal themselves.

SILENCE OF THE GRAVE is involving and highly compelling. The story of
the investigation and the life of Erlendur are intertwined so that they
provide both a contrast and also an explanation of how people become who
they are or react like they do. Even in translation there's a feel in
the writing of these books that is smooth, natural, hypnotic almost. In
SILENCE OF THE GRAVE the story moves along until the later few chapters
when the true circumstances behind the skeleton speed up the pace and
the whole story is revealed. At the same time Erlendur's life is revealed.